British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered a major setback Thursday in an election that saw her Conservative Party lose its majority in Parliament less than two weeks before the country is scheduled to begin talks over exiting from the European Union.

Links to today’s show transcripts:

Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn Rides Leftist Tide in U.K. Election in Rebuke of Austerity & Conservatives
British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered a major setback Thursday in an election that saw her Conservative Party lose its majority in Parliament less than two weeks before the country is scheduled to begin talks over exiting from the European Union. May called the snap election three years early, expecting to win a large mandate to negotiate with European leaders over the terms of the so-called Brexit. Instead, Conservatives were left without a clear majority and a hung Parliament. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who ran on a platform of “For the many, not the few,” said Thursday’s election results show voters are “turning their backs on austerity.” Guests are Paul Mason, columnist for The Guardian, and Mehdi Hasan, award-winning British journalist and broadcaster at Al Jazeera English. He is host of the Al Jazeera interview program “UpFront” and a columnist for The Intercept.

Is the President a “Serial Fabricator”? Fired FBI Director Comey Testifies About Trump’s “Lies”
Fired FBI Director James Comey testified Thursday that President Trump tried to derail an investigation into National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s links to Russia, and accused Trump of lying about why he was fired. Comey testified that he documented every meeting he had with Trump because he thought the president might lie about what had taken place, and said he leaked the meeting details to the media in order to spur the appointment of a special counsel. “From a political point of view, we know that one of the biggest flaws in Donald Trump’s presidency, his candidacy, his ability to be president, is that he’s a serial fabricator,” says Mehdi Hasan. “Now you have the former top law enforcement officer of this country going in front of the Senate, under oath, saying those are lies, plain and simple.”

Will Obstruction of Justice in Comey Firing See Trump Ousted Or Is Impeachment a “Liberal Fantasy”?
The issue of whether or not Donald Trump taped conversations with James Comey was raised several times during Comey’s dramatic testimony Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, prompting the question of whether a smoking gun exists that could lead to Trump’s impeachment for obstruction of justice. “It’s a liberal fantasy to talk about impeaching Trump,” says Mehdi Hasan. “I don’t think this House of Representatives, this Republican Congress, has any interest in impeaching Donald Trump. Even if you were to produce a video of Trump talking in Russian to Putin asking for his marching orders, I suspect Paul Ryan and co. would not decide to impeach him.”

The result of this British election has a weird echo of Trump’s triumph last year when he lost the vote but won the election, thanks to the Electoral College. Theresa May has had to appeal for support to the Democratic Unionists Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland to give her Conservatives a tactical overall majority in order to steer Brexit through parliament.

But hang on a minute, the Green Party won more votes than the DUP yet the Greens won only one seat whereas the DUP won ten. That’s neither proportional nor representative.

If I had a spinning ball, it would take a lot of energy applied in the opposite direction in order to bring that ball to a stop through friction. Once that ball starts spinning in the opposite direction, all resistance has been overcome and becomes a thing of the past.

I’m not sure I entirely trust Nick Cohen as a source. He was never a friend of the Stop the War Coalition and I think his view on Jeremy’s conduct is as simplistic as his various accusations are dubious. Jeremy is routinely able to view a variety of matters in the complex light in which they should be seen. This is unfashionable in our present surface-level society, but it’s a good thing.

I don’t say he’s perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. However, we should beware of the current trend of holding left-wing politicians to impossible standards, while being so very lenient towards the right wing.

Thank you so much for that, Lizzy. What a blast! For a while I thought we Brits had entirely lost the satire crown to the US, but I’ll take a slice of Jonathan Pie any day. His views are more real than reality. A perfect accompaniment to some warm weather here in the UK, too (wags tail).

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